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Silent Hill (2006)
Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Christophe Gans, Roger Avary, and Nicolas Boukhrief. The story is an adaptation of the Silent Hill series of survival horror games created by Konami. The film, particularly its emotional and aesthetic content as well as its creature design, includes elements from Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3. No elements are included from Silent Hill 4. The film follows a mother who takes her troubled adopted daughter to Silent Hill, the town the girl cries out for while sleepwalking. After being knocked unconscious in a car crash outside the town, she awakens to find her daughter missing and the town engulfed in an alternate reality of fog and falling ash. While searching for her daughter, she faces surreal reality shifts and monstrous creatures while uncovering her daughter's connections to the town's dark secrets. Plot Rose (Radha Mitchell) and husband Christopher Da Silva (Sean Bean) are concerned about their adopted daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) who has been experiencing severe nightmares and has begun sleepwalking. Their only clue to the girl's condition is her repetition of the name "Silent Hill." Desperate for answers, Rose takes Sharon to the town of Silent Hill, despite Christopher's opposition. She reaches the town, but is knocked unconscious in a car crash, and awakens to find Sharon is missing. Rose searches the empty streets of the town for her missing child. Instead, she encounters a series of monstrous creatures and a ragged woman named Dahlia Gillespie (Deborah Kara Unger) who speaks of the terrible things done to her own daughter, Alessa, by the townspeople. Dahlia claims that Sharon is actually her own daughter, not Rose's. After running from Dahlia, Rose eventually encounters a police officer, Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), who initially attempts to arrest her. Upon discovering that the road out of the town has mysteriously disappeared, however, Cybil allows her to go free and the two work side-by-side to survive in the hellish town. Scenes of their search are interspersed with scenes of Christopher's search of the town, with the reluctant assistance of Officer Thomas Gucci (Kim Coates). Christopher discovers documents showing the town was abandoned after a terrible fire 30 years ago, along with a photo of Dahlia's daughter, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Sharon. Christopher is arrested by Officer Gucci when he tries to question the orphanage about Sharon and Alessa, and is told to stop investigating Silent Hill. Meanwhile, Rose and Cybil find refuge from Silent Hill's monsters in the town church, led there by a woman named Anna, where they discover the remaining townspeople, a religious cult, headed by Christabella (Alice Krige). After convincing Christabella that she wants to find the 'demon' so feared by the townspeople, Rose is taken to a hospital in the town, along with Cybil. Here, Christabella discovers the likeness between Sharon and Alessa and condemns Rose and Cybil as witches. Cybil is captured as she defends Rose, who escapes the clutches of the cult and descends into the basement of the hospital. Rose eventually encounters a badly burned figure - Alessa - in a hospital bed and a mysterious little girl (Dark Alessa, the manifestation of the dark side of Alessa's soul) who strongly resembles the missing Sharon. In an extended flashback, Rose discovers that Silent Hill has had a history of ritual witch burnings, and that an attempt to burn Alessa 30 years ago went disastrously awry, resulting in the devastating fire destroying the town. Rose is told that Sharon is a manifestation of Alessa's remaining innocence and goodness, and was taken to the orphanage and subsequently adopted by Rose and Christopher. Rose agrees to help Alessa gain her final revenge. Rose enters the church soon after Cybil is burned to death by the townspeople, and Sharon is about to suffer a similar fate. She confronts the townspeople and Christabella with what she knows, attempting to convince the cult that they are in denial of their own fate. Christabella stabs Rose causing Rose's blood to drip onto the church floor, opening a portal into Alessa's dark world. The burned Alessa and Dark Alessa rise out of the pit, and proceed to kill Christabella and the townspeople with huge tangles of barbed wire, leaving Dahlia the sole inhabitant of Silent Hill. Rose and Sharon (who has now bonded with Dark Alessa to create a new "reborn" Alessa) leave Silent Hill and return home. Nevertheless, although Rose and Sharon/Alessa are in the same room as Christopher, they cannot see each other. Cast *''Radha Mitchell as Rose Da Silva, the desperate mother who seeks a cure for her daughter Sharon's nightmarish sleepwalking by taking her to the town of Silent Hill. Director Christophe Gans said that casting the lead for the film is "a matter of feeling. If you play Silent Hill you know that each character has a very special poetic quality. They are both twisted and sophisticated. We tried to keep that in mind when we did the casting on this film." *Sean Bean as Christopher Da Silva, the father of Sharon and husband of Rose who opposes his wife's decision to find answers in Silent Hill. Bean's role in the film was originally kept to the beginning and the end of the movie, but due to studio pressure for a male lead, his role was expanded into a subplot. *Jodelle Ferland as Sharon Da Silva, the adopted, troubled daughter of Rose and Christopher, and 'Alessa Gillespie, the tormented daughter of Dahlia who was burned alive by the cult of Silent Hill. Gans saw Ferland as "the ideal actress" after viewing the television show Kingdom Hospital and her screen test for Terry Gilliam's film Tideland. The official website lists three characters for Jodelle, adding the name Dark Alessa. *Laurie Holden as Cybil Bennett, the motorcycle cop from the city of Brahams who becomes suspicious of Rose and follows her into Silent Hill. Gans cast Holden after seeing her in The Majestic. Gans states, "in Majestic, she was beautifully feminine and I cast her so I could show her other side, make her strong and sleek. Laurie on the screen is, for me, a perfect manga image brought to life." *Deborah Kara Unger as Dahlia Gillespie, the mother of Alessa who walks the foggy dimension of Silent Hill after giving her daughter up for sacrifice. *Kim Coates as Officer Thomas Gucci, an essentially kind-hearted police officer jaded and hardened by his experiences at Silent Hill. *Tanya Allen as Anna, the daughter of one of the members of Silent Hill's local cult. *Alice Krige as Christabella', the leader of the cult of Silent Hill. To prepare for her role, Krige read the book ''The End of Days by Erna Paris, a book about tyranny during the Spanish Inquisition. References Category:Films Category:Silent Hill films